"Alright, hurry up and get to class." Chu Chen laughed, muttered a scolding, and turned to leave.
"Got it, see you later, Boss!" Blondie shouted, watching Chu Chen walk away.
Ignoring Blondie's antics, Chu Chen walked straight to the counselor's office and asked for a two-day leave.
Stepping out of the counselor's office, Chu Chen headed straight to the airport.
That very evening, Chu Chen arrived in Shenzhen.
As soon as he stepped off the plane, he felt the bustling energy and prosperity of the city.
"Living up to its reputation as the frontline of reform and opening up," Chu Chen muttered with a sigh, taking in the bustling traffic before him.
After resting at a hotel for the night, Chu Chen took a taxi straight to Linjiangbei early the next morning.
"Boss, how much for these secondhand phones?" Chu Chen asked, stepping into a mobile phone shop.
"Young man, what price range are you looking for?" asked the owner, a middle-aged man speaking with a heavy Cantonese accent.
Using reasonably fluent Cantonese, Chu Chen asked, "I'd like to check out some refurbished phones with pretty good performance. Do you have any?"
Intrigued, the owner perked up. Not many out-of-town youngsters spoke Cantonese these days. "We sure do! How many do you want? I've got every kind of phone right here!"
Feigning casualness, Chu Chen said, "Let's take a look first. If the price is right, I'll take a lot more."
Warmly inviting Chu Chen to sit down, the owner pulled out several refurbished models and introduced them. "These are all refurbished right here by us, absolutely no problem with the quality. Look at this Nokia—full features, can even browse the web, and only three hundred yuan!"
Chu Chen picked up the phone to inspect it. Its condition was so pristine anyone would believe it was brand new, not to mention its functionality, which was leagues better than the secondhand junk selling for over three hundred yuan back in Yanjing.
Knowing where he stood, he asked coolly, "Boss, can you go any lower on these? I want a hundred units."
Hearing that Chu Chen wanted a hundred units, the owner's eyes lit up. "Young man, are you really taking that many? If you take a hundred, I can give you a special price—one hundred yuan a unit, how about that?"
Chu Chen feigned astonishment. "That expensive? I've asked around elsewhere, and this model goes for eighty yuan at most!"
Panicking, the owner protested, "Eighty yuan? Who's giving you a price that low? These phones are priced at cost!"
Chu Chen waved a hand dismissively. "Boss, you don't need to feed me that line. I've been doing business for a while now. Just give me your absolute rock-bottom price!"
Gritting his teeth, the owner said, "Ninety. That's truly the lowest!"
Chu Chen made a move to leave. "Boss, think it over. I'm really sincere about this."
The owner gritted his teeth again. "Fine, fine! Eighty it is. Consider it a loss on my part!"
Only then did Chu Chen nod with satisfaction. "Good, straightforward! Eighty yuan a unit for a hundred units—get the goods ready!"
Grinning broadly, the owner hurried off to prepare the shipment, ecstatic inside. The wholesale cost of this batch was only fifty yuan, so he had made a thirty-yuan profit per unit on the turn. The kid looked sharp, but he had still fallen for his pitch.
After paying, Chu Chen looked at the boxes of brand-new phones with a quiet sense of satisfaction. This trip to Shenzhen was well worth it.
He decided to stay in Shenzhen a few extra days to see if he could run into some top-tier talent. After all, several internet giants from his past life had their roots in Linjiangbei.
Pity he hadn't succeeded in business yet; if he tried sketching a grand blueprint for others now, they wouldn't necessarily buy it. With a sigh of resignation, he gave up the idea and caught a flight back to Jincheng that same evening.
When he returned to Jincheng and summoned his core crew of underlings, they were dumbfounded at the sight of the box of phones.
"Holy shit! Boss, so many phones! Are these all for us?" Blondie's eyes went wide.
"Boss is awesome!" the other underlings cheered in chorus.
Calmly, Chu Chen said, "What's the big deal? Stick with me, and forget about phones like these—sooner or later, having your own smartphone like those newly popular Apple or Samsung models from overseas will be standard issue for everyone."
"When I, Chu Chen, say I'll do something, I do it!"
"Boss is awesome!" The underlings instantly surged with excitement, shouting in unison.
"Biaozi, any recent movements from the Azure Dragon Gang?" Chu Chen asked nonchalantly, crossing his legs and toying with a Nokia.
Scratching his head with a good-natured grin, Zhou Hongbiao replied, "Brother Chen, they haven't made any moves lately. Probably worried about school hours and haven't had the nerve to come cause trouble."
"Mm, they'll probably show up this weekend." A playful smirk curled the corner of Chu Chen's mouth as he already formulated a plan. "Then we'll need to round up some hardware to properly host them this weekend."
"Don't you worry, Brother Chen, leave that to me!" Zhou Hongbiao promised, slapping his chest.
"Right, how did those talks with the restaurant owners go?" Chu Chen changed the subject to another important matter.
"Most of the owners agreed. After all, like we discussed, they can just add our delivery fee to the food prices. Plus, having us handle deliveries makes it convenient for them without interrupting their work," Zhou Hongbiao reported on the progress. "Still, a few owners aren't willing to cooperate with us."
"Leave the uncooperative ones for now. We aren't forcing anyone into a deal. Later on, if they want to collaborate, we might not even be willing."
Chu Chen didn't care much; after all, people with long-term vision were always in the minority.
"Biaozi, tell the boys to hustle and get contracts signed with all the cooperative owners. We'll settle accounts daily to avoid any bickering," Chu Chen instructed, kicking off the next phase of work.
"You got it, Brother Chen. I'm on it!" Zhou Hongbiao acknowledged and hurried off.
"Also, collect the menus and contact information from those restaurants. We'll have a unified batch of delivery cards printed and bound into booklets, then hand them out for free around campus," Chu Chen continued.
"Brother Chen, that's a brilliant move! The students will definitely be fighting over them!" Zhou Hongbiao said excitedly.
Smartphones weren't widespread yet, and mobile apps were underdeveloped, so Chu Chen had to use the most traditional method, but he trusted it would crack open the market.
"Brother Chen, you're truly incredible! Following your lead is the right move!"
Hearing this, the underlings boiled with excitement and brimming anticipation for the future.
Nobody thought delivering food was humiliating anymore. Thinking about making two yuan per run, and with so many people in University Town, wouldn't hitting a hundred runs a day per person be a breeze? That added up to five or six thousand a month.
Back in 2008, that was no small sum of money.
Looking at the underlings before him, whose faces radiated an unprecedented confidence and contentment, Chu Chen knew he was changing not just their livelihoods, but their destinies.
"What? You guys don't think running deliveries is embarrassing anymore?" Chu Chen teased playfully, a trace of amusement at the corner of his mouth.
Hearing this, the underlings froze for a second before breaking into sheepish grins.
"Hehe, Brother Chen, we were just short-sighted before, narrow-minded and blind to the bigger picture. At the end of the day, our big boss is the awesome one, willing to take us along to make money!"
"Yeah, Brother Chen, we were blind before. Please be generous and forgive our ignorance, still willing to bring us along to strike it rich. You're practically our second parents!" the other underlings chimed in.
"Alright, cut the flattery and get to work. We've barely scratched the surface—there's plenty more money to be made later!" Chu Chen chuckled and waved a hand.
"Yes, Brother Chen!" the underlings answered in unison, their eyes shining with longing and hope for the future.